First Beer - 3 months later

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dest149

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Hey Guys, so I tried an American Wheat Ale, and I brewed it back in late October. Here is what I wrote down about it in my journal as time went on.

American Wheat Ale

Directions followed exactly.

Brew Date: 10/30/11

Yeast: started in ~ ¼ cup of LME and 325ml of water for 24 hrs, and refrigerated for additional 24 hrs


Measurements: OG: 1.44
Measurements: FG: 1.15
Fermentation Temperature: 64-65oF

Signs of fermentation noted after 12-18hrs of brew, lasted for about 7-10 days.



So I have had it in a swamp cooler in my room for the past three months, and it has been temp controlled for most of that time because the room temp is fairly low and I have it covered with a t-shirt to absorb the water. I have checked every so often and its ALWAYS 64-65 so I think it should be okay in that sense. I transferred to a secondary after about a month right after thanksgiving. I was going to bottle it after the month but I didn't have enough bottles at the time. Then I had enough bottles but a combination of laziness, and a lot to do it has just been sitting there, and I figured since its in a secondary and temp controlled it could only make the beer better from what I originally read on here. The color doesnt really appear to be quite on par with what I saw in the picture but I dont know how big of a deal that is. I dont think I have any type of infection so that's good. I am planning on bottling tomorrow. I wanted to get a reminder on what the standard amounts and procedure for bottling sugar is, and any useful tips I should keep in mind. Also, as for washing, I always rinsed them with water after use and just stored them away. I was just planning on putting them in the washer and calling it a done deal. Would this work/be smart? Should I take another approach. Finally, what do you guys think the beer will taste like? Did I leave it too long perhaps?
 
for bottling I use about 4 oz corn sugar in about a half cup of water (boiled and cooled) then added to bottling bucket. you need to sanitize your bottles. washing is good but sanitizing will kill the bacteria that washing can leave behind. don't have enough info to tell you about taste but i usually bottle low gravity wheat beers about a week or 2 after fg is reached. 3 months isn't necessarily too long but this beer doesn't need to age
 
for bottling I use about 4 oz corn sugar in about a half cup of water (boiled and cooled) then added to bottling bucket. you need to sanitize your bottles. washing is good but sanitizing will kill the bacteria that washing can leave behind. don't have enough info to tell you about taste but i usually bottle low gravity wheat beers about a week or 2 after fg is reached. 3 months isn't necessarily too long but this beer doesn't need to age

4oz only? Tasty brew calculator that I just looked at said to use like 8.4 oz of priming sugar. Which should I follow?
 
any reason for the discrepancy between the two? I put the beer calculator volume as 5 gallons...
 
I typed mine in on beersmith first and got 4 oz. tastybrew is giving me about the same amount tho. I typed in 2.6 volumes , 5 gallons of beer, and 65 degrees F.
 
I typed mine in on beersmith first and got 4 oz. tastybrew is giving me about the same amount tho. I typed in 2.6 volumes , 5 gallons of beer, and 65 degrees F.

Hmm i think its a difference of the volumes. It had 4.04 for me, but that was just there when I selected the type of beer. How did you arrive at 2.6 volumes?
 
They dont have an option for American Wheat, so I went for Wheat - Wiezen instead which I am under the impression is the American Wheat's close cousin?
 
between 2 and 3 volumes is pretty standard. few beer styles go above 3 or below 2. tastybrew is actually recommending right around 2.45 volumes for your beer style. carbing to 4 volumes with 8 oz of sugar will probably build up enough pressure to blow the bottles up or atleast the caps.
 
Mmkayy, well I will certainly follow your recommendation. Im glad I asked. Thank you.
 
Is it the end of the world if I just use regular sugar? Or will it make a difference in the final product if I go and find some corn sugar?
 
you can use regular table sugar. It has that listed. your supposed to use slightly less than corn sugar but the difference is kind of negligible
 
In your personal opinion, is there a difference in the results between the two or not really?
 
Nothing I've really noticed between the 2 sugars. If you use something like honey or maple syrup to carb then you get a little flavor and aroma.
 
Newb here, so take this for what it's worth.

I didn't see where you said what kind of priming sugar you're using. From what I've read, if you're using corn sugar then less is required than if you're using DME. Could that be a factor?

ETA: Oops, I didn't see the second page of this thread before I replied.
 
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